How to cook a turkey

I understand there are virtually an infinite number of ways to took a Turkey.  I even ran into a receipt for boiling it whole.  I am curious as to the various approaches on Permies.

I stuff mine with onions. Set the oven at 475f and cook it uncovered until it is nicely browned. Then I cover it and drop the temp to 300 to finish it.

I pretty much always brine or marinate turkey before cooking. What goes into the brine/marinade varies. Right now I'm heating the oven to bake turkey wings and back that have been marinaded in homemade hot Italian sausage seasoning. Sounds weird, but turkey does really well with various sausage seasonings. I've done chorizo, andouille, etc. and they're all good. In the spring or summer I may smoke the turkey instead of baking.

Since it's just the two of us, I buy a few turkeys when they are a good price, then cut them into three parts (breast/leg - 2x, back/wings) then repackage and freeze them.

For more traditional whole turkey cooking, it's a salt/apple juice/black pepper brine then roasted with onion chunks in the cavity. The apple juice caramelizes on the skin beautifully and gives the drippings a subtle sweetness.

Spatchcocking a turkey, while takes a little surgical skill, will change your life.

It cooks faster, it cooks more evenly, and makes carving incredibly simple if you are not someone who is good at carving meat like myself.

Here is a link to Martha Stewart's guide on how to spatchcock a chicken.

Hi Timothy,

I had to look the term up.  Interesting approach.

I have always baked by turkey with cornbread stuffing.

My mother-in-law taught me how to bake the turkey without the stuffing then add cornbread dressing to the stock around the turkey.

For many years before he passed away my father-in-law smoked a turkey.  He tried stuffing the turkey with different fruits.

I find what is served with the turkey interesting as different families have different side dishes.

My son-in-law's mother always makes green bean casserole.